This past Saturday evening I spent a very nice hour and change talking with Stephen Sondheim.

Since I started writing the cryptic crosswords for The Sondheim Review a few years ago, we have exchanged emails on a handful of occasions, generally about the puzzles. These exchanges have always been polite and cordial. A while ago, I learned that a local ( Read more... )

I just got back from Texas, where I designed a production of The Wizard of Oz in Fort Worth. It seems like when I talk about work it's usually bitching, so I thought I'd share a nice moment as a change of pace:

The stage is a 3/4 thrust, which means the 1100-seat audience wraps to the sides to an extent and there's no curtain in front. So you see ( Read more... )

 Is anyone else as eye-rollingly amused as I am by the current TV commercial for Sprint? It's the one in which a guy introduces himself as Dan Hesse, the CEO of Sprint, and then conversationally mentions "The other day I looked up the word 'unlimited' in the dictionary ( Read more... )

I do a show once or twice a year for a theatre in Dayton, OH, about an hour's drive from where I live. A familiar landmark at the halfway point has been the King of Kings statue rising unmajestically from a cement pond next to a megachurch. I've always thought of it personally as the "Drowning Jesus" and occasionally "Swiss Cheesus", but "Touchdown ( Read more... )

 Last night I attended an awards ceremony in which various theatre productions and practitioners from the Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana tristate area were to be honored for exceptional work during the past theatre season. Though I've done a little more work locally than I have in past seasons (usually the bulk of my projects in a year are for theaters in ( Read more... )

Sunday night before last, getting some sleep after Mystery Hunt wrapped up, I had an odd dream. In it, we were substituting a "bring something to HQ"-type puzzle for something in an early round (we'd never be posting puzzles after the Hunt had already started, of course, that's how I knew I had to be dreaming ( Read more... )

Back from MIT, where with the other members of Beginner's Luck I was responsible for creating the 2010 MIT Mystery Hunt. I was very, very pleased with the reception the Hunt got. Many people have listed it as a favorite Hunt, and I've read or received many kind remarks on the Hunt in general or my contributions in particular from people whose ( Read more... )

 Some of you will appreciate this more than others. I'm looking at you at you, T!.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w

Just a quick note to my friends heading off to Brooklyn this weekend for the Crossword Tournament. Have Fun!